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The Greek Prime Minister, Costas Karamanlis, conceded defeat last night and resigned as leader of the conservative party after a general election victory for the opposition Socialists.

With more than 80 per cent of votes counted the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (Pasok) of George Papandreou had 44 per cent against 34 per cent for the New Democracy of Mr Karamanlis. Turnout was 70 per cent. Pasok needs to win at least 151 of the 300 seats in parliament to form a government on its own. An electoral monitoring branch of the Interior Ministry projected that Pasok would win 160 seats.